Arbitrum Delegate Proposes to Claw Back $120M in ARB Tokens From Gaming Catalyst Program (GCP)

More than four months have passed since Arbitrum DAO authorized the allocation of 225 billion ARB to expand Arbitrum's adoption by gaming developers and players

Arbitrum DAO (decentralized autonomous organization) members are discussing a proposal to return 220 million ARB to the DAO treasury, an initiative that would significantly reduce the remaining funds allocated to the Gaming Catalyst Program (GCP).

According to a recent update, the proposal, put forth by Arbitrum delegate Joseph Schiarizzi, aims to return the funds to the DAO treasury, leaving the GCP with nearly $2 million to continue operations until a need for further funding is demonstrated.

“It’s a shame [the GCP Council] has not fulfilled its duties thus far and been tardy on meeting multiple of its oversight and transparency commitments that were ratified in the original proposal,” reads the proposal.

The proposal comes amid concerns raised by community members over the lack of accountability and public updates about the program, which were initially allocated 225 billion ARB to expand Arbitrum’s adoption by gaming developers and players. At current prices, 225 million ARB are valued at nearly $120.3 million.

The GCP Council, a group of professionals functioning “as a braintrust that offer their accumulated knowledge to empower the GCP core team,” was established by the June 7, 2024, onchain vote that created the GCP.

As of press time, blockchain data showed that 1.35 million ARB tokens had left the multi-signature wallet, leaving 223.65 million ARB tokens in the wallet.

The working team and council are tasked with collaborating on quarterly transparency reports about GCP’s performance, according to the June 7 onchain vote. However, A.J. Warner, chief strategy officer of Arbitrum development firm Offchain Labs, wrote on X on Friday morning, “There is no transparency report [yet], because the program is being set up… Obviously there is no transparency report of data on GCP performance. They aren’t performing yet.”

While Schiarizzi expressed doubt that his proposal would be approved, he told Unchained that its purpose was to create some accountability for the $120 million worth of ARB tokens backing GCP.

“I think it will light a fire under the chair of the people that need to be posting updates,” he said.

In response to criticism about the program’s lack of communication, Offchain Labs’ Warner pointed to bi-weekly public calls regarding status and updates, adding that “the legal structure for how to do this, the right personnel to operate it, the corporate governance to ensure operational visibility and oversight literally has not no precedence to draw from. This will take a ton of time.”

Per the timeline established by the onchain vote, the GCP should be at the end of phase two, which means a number of activities should have been completed.

While Arbitrum DAO initially elected its GCP council members, one member of the group, Andrew Green, stepped down, according to a Sept. 12 update, which indicated that his replacement is coming soon. Schiarizzi argued, however, that the new replacement member should be nominated and voted on in the same way the initial council members were selected.

The month before, Karel Vuong, co-author of GCP and co-founder of game publisher Treasure, also stepped down from the GCP working group. Treasure was initially on Arbitrum, but Treasure DAO members voted to migrate its gaming ecosystem to the alternative L2 network ZKSync.

“That is a huge canary in the coal mine situation,” said Schiarizzi. “It’s very bad for Arbitrum to lose one of its largest delegates [and] one of its most important projects that originally brought tons of people to Arbitrum.”

A co-author of GCP who goes by “Djinn” told Unchained in a Telegram message that GCP didn’t even have a website yet, despite the DAO being expected to establish some key program infrastructure.

A grant application process was also anticipated, but Unchained was not able to find a grant application process for game developers and studios, nor a request for proposal (RFP) regarding infrastructure development.

“Numerous people were calling out, in real time, how the gaming catalyst program was asking too much, too soon relative to what the DAO was capable of actively managing and enforcing,” Carlos Mercado, a data scientist at Flipside Crypto, told Unchained. “This is a structural problem for DAOs under-resourced for proper grants management lifecycles. I expect a lot more buzz on a potential clawback.”

Eine Marketingstrategie sollte in Phase zwei enthalten sein, aber „es gibt keine Entwicklung [zu] anfänglichem Marketing, Marke und Reichweite.“ Vielleicht haben sie eine Strategie. Ich weiß nicht. Sie haben es nicht gepostet“, sagte Schiarizzi.

Dass GCP hinter dem Zeitplan zurückbleibt, ist keine Überraschung, sagte Arbitrum-Delegierter Krzysztof Urbański gegenüber Unchained.

„Was sie tun, ist ziemlich neu – ein richtiger Investmentfonds, der von der DAO eingerichtet wurde, mit [a] kürzer als üblich

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